Rose Picon, Staff Writer

The world can be a harsh place, filled with conflict and a daily struggle for survival. While some seek to improve the conditions of those they may never see, others disregard the madness that saturates many regions. Years ago, Beverly Allen realized she could not ignore the brutality that existed among people during warfare.

Allen came to Syracuse University in 1990 to teach advanced courses in humanities and language, along with a course about genocide. A California native, she majored in music at Berkeley and, after falling in love with Italian poetry while studying in Rome, she later earned her Ph.D. in Italian.

Allen became the scholarly writer she is today after she was invited to travel to Croatia to investigate the Bosnian War that was occurring throughout 1992-1995. While there, Allen discovered the rape and death camps, where Bosnian women were being raped, tortured, and murdered by Serbian men. “Initially, I refused to believe the testimonies. I refused to believe I lived in a world where this was happening,” Allen confides.

Allen found nothing more degrading than the idea of using rape as a tool for warfare and wanted to expose these crimes. She soon authored Rape Warfare, a piece of investigative journalism which influenced the United Nations Security Council to create a new law making rape a crime against humanity.

In 2000 Rape Warfare reached the hands of film director R.E. Altman, who asked Allen to write an offshoot. Eventually, they agreed on a screenplay, and Allen enrolled in the S.I. Newhouse School and began studying the art of screenwriting. In just two months, Rape Warfare was adapted to His Name is Daniel and focused on Muslim children interned in a Serb concentration camp in Sarajevo.

Initially, Allen hoped enacting a law would end rape during warfare; she now believes that a good film may be a more effective tool. “Films that tell the world what is happening lead to increased intolerance of crimes. Laws are created after the fact – we must persuade the people first.”

Through her film, Allen wants men and women to re-establish “values of the feminine principle” – using the right side of the brain more, trusting intuition, and increasing capacity for empathy and nurturing. Allen feels that if we follow these values more closely, our world will be a less cruel and violent place.

His Name is Daniel will be shown Friday, April 15, at 2pm, on the campus of Syracuse University, in Eggers Hall Room 010.